1-Day Portrait Photography Workshop in San Diego, CA – October 2, 2010

The Workshop 411:
As I mentioned on Friday, I have a workshop coming up in San Diego, CA on October 2, 2010.  This workshop is only going to be one day long, but we will move efficiently to cover portrait photography and workflow.

The cost to attend the workshop is only $150.00, which covers the entire day and even includes lunch!  We will be focusing on portrait photography and all the aspects that are encompassed by it.  I’ll talk about lighting, posing, subject interaction, working with models, and more.  Towards the end of the day we’ll discuss post processing and working with images on your computer, as well as turning your photography into a vocation.

When I teach, I prefer to demonstrate and then let my students try their hand at the technique that I’m covering.  This method of “see and do” is much more conducive to learning than the “show and tell” method.  My goal isn’t to stand in front of you and tell you about this stuff, it’s to show it to you and then let you try it for yourself.  I’ll be there for guidance – but I want you to practice so that you can repeat what you’ve learned when I’m not around.

Check out the workshop page for all the details and to sign up!

A Few Words About Our Sponsors:
The workshop is sponsored by Zenfolio and Lumodi, companies whose products I already use.  Zenfolio is THE place to host and sell your photos online!  They provide excellent service that is packed with the features that photographers want.  The fact that they use my favorite lab in the world, Mpix, to fulfill print orders is simply icing on the cake.  Lumodi produces some of the coolest and efficient speedlight beauty dishes available anywhere!  I use both their 11″ and 14″ beauty dishes and love ‘em!  I’ll show you how I use them throughout the workshop too!

All workshop attendees will receive a coupon for 15% discount off a new account with Zenfolio and there will be product on hand from Lumodi for giveaways throughout the day!

If you live in or around the San Diego area or if you are going to be in town on October 2nd, come on out to the workshop and I’ll teach you all about portrait photography using the “see and do” method so that you’ll remember what you learned after the workshop is over.

 

Yes, It’s OK To Blow Out The Background

I’ve talked to several photographers who struggle with foreground and background exposure.  They get frustrated because they want  a particular shot and want to have the whole photo properly exposed.  In certain situations that can be tough to pull off in the camera – especially when the subject of your photograph is a person or people.

Even if your subject is in shade, the scene might be backlit and that will wash out any background on bright sunny day.  Photographers don’t always have the luxury of picking the time of day that we shoot.  Clients may have a specific time and date in mind and they are likely not going to be what we would consider to be ‘ideal’.

This brings me to the point of this post: it’s OK to let your background blow out.  Doing so can sometimes serve double-duty.  First, having the background blown out adds drama to your photo.  Second, it could possibly help to hide distracting elements in the background of your photo.

For instance, the photo above I shot in the middle of the afternoon on a cloudless day.  The available light was bright and harsh so I put my subjects in front of the pillars which provided shade.  I exposed for my subject (the couple) and let the background blow out.  If I had let my camera make the exposure decision for me, it would have exposed for the sky in the background and my subjects would have been very underexposed.

Sure, I could have double-processed in the image in Photoshop to get a properly exposed foreground and background, but where’s the fun in that?  Rules are meant to be broken.  So challenge yourself and go out and try something new.  Get out of your comfort zone.  You will likely surprise yourself with what you learn.

Self-Assignments: Refresh Your Creativity

If you ever find yourself in a bit of a creative rut and have a hard time coming up with new and fresh ideas for your work, I’ve got a method that has helped me out: self-assignments.  You can assign yourself in many different ways, and be as hard or as easy on yourself as you want.  The important thing is that you challenge your own creativity in an effort to bring about new ideas and thoughts for your work.

Over the weekend, I decided to challenge myself to go out and shoot in downtown San Diego with my camera and only one lens.  So I packed my shoulder bag with my D90 and a Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 lens and set out to the Gaslamp.  The challenge was that I couldn’t be lazy.  If I wanted to be closer than the 35mm focal length would get me, then I had to move.  That affords me to see things that I might not have seen because I would have normally relied on the other lenses in my camera bag.

You can challenge yourself with a particular subject – like buildings, windows, doors, light fixtures, leaves, and the list goes on and on.  You can apply it to all categories of photography too.  Landscapes, portraits, products, nature, architecture – it doesn’t really matter.  What DOES matter is that you’re out and about with your camera in hand, making pictures based on your self-assignment.

Challenge yourself creatively and see the results.  Force yourself to hone your skills and stay sharp with your craft.  Your images will improve and your creative juices will flow like a river into an ocean.

Sometimes It Pays to Bring It All

This past weekend I headed out with a neighbor who wanted to shoot the moon, as it was the closest it has been to Earth in many years. This also brought about a VERY high tide, which the surfers were loving.

The night before, I was packing my gear and thought to myself, “I’m shooting landscapes so I probably will only need my 24-70mm Sigma and my D90″. I could put those and a flash in my Tamrac shoulder bag and be good to go. Then I got to thinking that if something else interesting came along and I didn’t have any other glass, I might miss out.

I ended up bringing my Think Tank Airport Security bag and I was glad that I did because I was right. I would have missed out. After the moon tucked behind the clouds and the sun began to rise, the surfers hit the water. After I got all my moon shots, I decided to throw on my Sigma 70-200mm and start shooting the surfers. Oddly enough, I’d never done this before.

One surfer, who also happens to be a Coronado Beach lifeguard, came up to us and asked if we would mind taking a couple of shots of him. I gladly obliged and got a few shots that I happened to like.

All-in-all, I was pretty happy at the end of the morning. If I hadn’t have brought my other glass, I would have been out of luck for sure. 70mm just isn’t enough reach to get out to the waves, even as close to the water as I was. This was one time where I was glad I lugged my whole bag, even though I set out with no intentions of shooting surfers. I’m even tempted to rent some longer glass and give it another go sometime. Lots and lots of fun!

So the next time you think about packing light, put a little thought into where you’re going and what other subjects you might come across that would call for different gear than what you’re thinking about packing. It may save you from some disappointment!

Lighting Essentials Workshop in San Diego

I’ve got some pretty cool news for all the photographers in the Southern California area! Don Giannatti is bringing his Lighting Essentials workshop to town on February 6th and 7th, 2010! If you have always wanted to learn about lighting, are just starting out, or even if you have a good bit of experience working with lighting you will benefit greatly by attending!

The workshop is two days long, with the first day shooting in the studio and the second day working on location. And when I say, “shooting” I really mean it. There is not a lot of show and tell to be had, it’s more like shoot and shoot!

The lighting topics will range from reflectors to studio flashes, and not to worry… there will be plenty of gear to go around. Even if you’ve never put your hands on an actual studio flash before, you will feel pretty well-versed by the time you finish with the workshop.

On the second day, you will be out shooting on location. Here’s where small flash really comes into play. They are so easy and portable that they are a go-to light for lots of location shooters. This part of the workshop will bring you out of the dark, and into the light (pun completely intended).

I’ve spent all this time talking about shooting and by now you’re probably wondering who you’re going to be shooting? Models. Real, live, models. The other benefit of this workshop is learning how to interact with your subjects and provide direction in order to achieve your vision.

As great as I’ve made this workshop sound, it’s got to be expensive right? Wrong. The price tag is $450.00 and that’s less than half of what some other people charge for a workshop of this caliber. I’m here to tell you that this is a small investment for what you will gain. There are only a few spots left, so be sure to head on over and sign up! I’ll be there myself, so I hope to see you there!

Screenshot above courtesy of Lighting Essentials Workshops.

“So, shoot much HDR these days?”

SOAPBOX ALERT! – Apparently there is some war going on over HDR and whether or not we as photographers should be shooting it. WHO CARES!? As photographers, we should care more about the IMAGE and less about how it was made. As I mentioned onTwitter and Facebook last week, keep fighting about it… I’ll be out making pictures and working on building my client base.

I’m pretty new to shooting and processing HDR, but I’m not new to the concept. I have been reading about it for a long time now and I have even processed some images that are “pseudo HDR” that have been published.

What really attracts me (and lot of other viewers) to HDR photos is that the final image represents something a lot closer to what our eyes can see and our brains can process. This is why people who aren’t photographers rave over the images. The human eye is an amazing optic and has a dynamic range of light sensitivity that we could only dream our DSLRs being capable of.

So you’ll probably start seeing more HDR images as being to experiment more and expand on this new tool in my camera bag. The wheels are already turning in my mind over other things in and around San Diego that I can shoot, that I think would make great HDR images.

On top of that, this year is going to be a ‘project year’ for me. I have decided My wife has encouraged me to work on a photo book, and I think that a fitting subject would be San Diego. After all, I’ve spent almost ten years living and working here… why not? Now, it’s not going to be exclusively HDR, so if you’re one of those Super Anti-HDR protesters your efforts would likely be more useful somewhere else. I hope to have the book finished up by early fall, but we’ll see.

The Holidays are behind us, the New Year is upon us, so stop making excuses and go out and shoot!

Panorama Tips and the San Diego Skyline

On Friday night I headed down to Coronado Island to shoot some images of the downtown San Diego skyline. I wanted to put together a panorama that I could use as art in my house. So I shot a series of photos (more on that in a minute) and stitched them together in Photoshop. I make ANY adjustments to this image whatsoever. All I did was stitch it together with Photoshop from Lightroom and then added the canvas area and some text.

Shooting Tips
If you want to get a pano like this, there are a couple of ways to go about it. First, you can shoot a photo with a wide angle lens and then crop it to simulate a pano. Second, you can shoot a series of vertical shots that overlap by about 20% of each other and then use Photoshop to put them together for you.

If you go the second route and shoot verticals, you will want to use a tripod if at all possible. This will help you keep your horizons level and give you more control over the camera. You can shoot it handheld, but you’ll need to leave a greater margin for error so that you aren’t cutting something important out of the photo when it comes time to crop. If you’re shooting at night, you’re gonna need a tripod, without a doubt.

You will also want to use some time of IR remote or cable release. If you don’t have one, then you can use your camera’s self-timer. This will help prevent camera shake which will keep you from getting blurry images since your shutter will be open for several seconds.

Last, but not least, you’ll want to start out with your camera’s white balance set to ‘Tungsten’ or ‘Incandescent’. You can play around with other WB settings, but your photos will likely look WAY too warm.

So there’s a couple of quick tips to help you shoot better panoramas right from the camera. Try it out next time your shooting. Let me know if you’d like more information on how to post process these images in Photoshop. If there’s enough demand, I’ll post a video for you guys.

Have a great week!

Photo Shoot with singer Peter Marin

Yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting with Jazz singer Peter Marin at Balboa Park here in San Diego. We had a great morning and got some really great shots. I thought I would post a couple of shots here on the blog for you to check out. I am still editing them down, but I found a couple of instant selects in the process.

I shot these photos with my trusty Nikon D90, Nikon 85mm f 1.8 lens, and an SB800 at 1/8 power through a 24 x 24 Lastolite Ezybox. That thing gives me the most beautiful, soft light I could ever hope for from a hot shoe flash. It just plain rocks! I just needed one light to pull off these shots. Remember, you don’t always have to have the big studio strobes to get high-quality light. And with small flashes, I can move and work quickly which is a HUGE advantage when shooting on location.

I hope you enjoyed the photos and I’ll see you back here later this week for more about what I’ve been up to! Come back and see me and until then, I hope you have a great week!

Weekend Updates

Well, the weekend’s here again and I wanted to let you know what’s going on and what’s coming up next week on the blog.

• I’m planning on posting my review of “The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light From Small Flashes” by Joe McNally. The review will be a little lengthy but I’m going to break down each section for you. If you haven’t read this book yet, you’ll want to after you read my review.
• In these times of economic uncertainty, it’s hard for us to part with our hard earned cash for new gear. Wanna know my solution? Buy used gear! Check out websites like Craigslist and eBay for awesome deals on glass, flashes, and the like. I recently picked up a Nikon 85mm f1.8 lens for less than half of what it costs new! You can’t go wrong with that and I’ll be buying a couple more lenses the exact same way. Of course, I’ll have a full review up after I’ve put it through it’s paces.
• My Lastolite Ezybox came in on Thursday… I’ll be engrossed this weekend shooting with it. So far I’m really jazzed about this thing… the quality of light is amazing!
• I’ve been shooting a lot more photos with my iPhone than usual. (See photo above.) I was inspired by Chase Jarvis and his collection of iPhone photos. I process them with native iPhone apps like CameraBag and Cool FX by Tiffen. This further proves that the best camera is the one that’s with you.
• I’ll be out and about this morning in Carlsbad for a Mentoring Session. You can read more about this right here.
• Last but not least, I hope to have photos and gel kits up and available in my “store” on Monday. I’ll post a little more about them and how you can make them yourself. But if you’re not much of the DIY’er you can buy them in my store for cheap.

That’s it for me, so I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday! Keep clickin’ the shutter release!

Photo Recipe: How To Get This Shot

This was a shot that I had been wanting to get for awhile, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. This sign is a icon in the San Diego area. It’s “The Boulevard”, which is the “gateway to mid-city”.

It’s neon, so shooting it at night is certainly appropriate and makes for a much more interesting photo than what you would get during daylight hours. A tripod is going to be essential to the success of a shot like this.

I shot it with my D90, 50mm f1.8 lens, and I used the self-timer set at 5 seconds. This reduces the chance of camera shake significantly. Aperture was at f/22 and the shutter speed was set to 3 seconds. I needed this long of an exposure to get the light trails from the cars passing by. I was of course in Manual mode and at ISO 200.

One thing to keep in mind here is when you’re shooting around stoplights that if you catch a light changing from red to green it will show up in your photo. If it does, it makes your image a lot less believable. Of course, it could possibly fixed in post later on as well.

Monday’s here again and it’s the start of a new week. I’ve got a busy week this week and I’ve also got a Mentor Session scheduled for Saturday morning. More on that later.

Have a great week!

Stephen